Nintendo Go Wi-Fi

B- Bo- Boonnnnggghghhnnngh!!

And with that, let's begin the HARDWARE REVIEW.

Mmm, Buffalo.

Yesterday I got the chance to use my Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector for the first time. It's that mysterious thing above - basically a Wi-Fi device that plugs into a USB port on your PC, and allows your Nintendo DS (And any others in the area) to link to it and get online. From there you can game on with anybody around the globe, so long as the game allows it.

I was playing Animal Crossing: Wild World, which Ron Gilbert described as design perfection. Not a bad game!

The first thing you must do is install some software to your PC. It's a tiny program and runs in the background when you plug in the USB Connector. It's basically a monitor, a bit like an instant messenger's friends list that shows everybody who's connected to the device. You can also choose to disallow access from it.

Once this is going, the process of connecting is easy. It's all big colourful buttons and tingly sound effects. It's very quick, and within minutes I was running around my Scottish friend's town. I was impressed by the smoothness of it all, I know Animal Crossing isn't exactly Ironforge but it's nice to game with someone a few hundred miles away and everything is perfectly smooth.

I had an old 'brick' DS that I imported from Japan in November 2004.
Yes, I'm a cruel bitch to upgrade. At least the old one went to a good home¹.

The range of the system is a good few meters; you don't have to be right next to it to use it. This allows you to pace around your room or adopt dramatic poses should the feeling strike you.

The only problem with the game was actually talking to my friend. You can't use the microphone, so messages must be typed out using the touchpad. That'd be fine, but you can only fit about three letters per line, so things often got broken up. I'm sure there were reasons for this when they made it... I can't think of any, but I shouldn't complain.

To actually connect to your friend, you must exchange your 'friend codes' which is a randomly (I think) generated number that you add to a friends list ingame (Most other Wi-Fi games use this system too). When you connect to the internet, you then select this friend from the list, and the code allows easy transition into their town or vice-versa. It also means that you can't join a random person's town - there's no 'server list' as it were. Otherwise people'd come running in, cutting down all the trees, digging holes and causing a lot of trouble. Humans are like that.

In any case I'd say this Wi-Fi business was a roaring success, and I'll definitely be doing it again. I should add that if you have a Wi-Fi internet connection, you don't need one of these USB gadgets. You can just connect straight in by changing some settings.

. . .

¹ I gave it to my friend for free, it was in great quality too. I stole the wrist strap though, you don't get one with the DS Lite for some unforgivable reason.